


The Other World

by Slygirl1



Series: The Other World (Sanders Sides/Coraline AU) [1]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Coraline AU, Gen, Inspired by Coraline, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-10
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:20:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21646669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slygirl1/pseuds/Slygirl1
Summary: After moving out of what was Thomas's very crowded house, Virgil finds himself living in the Pink Palace with Roman, Logan, and of course, Patton. Little does he realize what this house has in store for him.
Series: The Other World (Sanders Sides/Coraline AU) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1560532
Kudos: 10





	1. The Arrival

**Author's Note:**

> After forever of first posting it onto Tumblr, I'm finally posting this here. I only have the first two chapters done, but after getting back into Sanders Sides it shouldn't be long before the rest of the series comes out. I will give you a heads up now though that there will be some drastic differences from the film thanks to what I outlined, but I'll make sure the differences are worth it!  
> Anyways, enjoy!

In Virgil’s mind, unfamiliar territory was always a reason to be on high alert. This was especially true when said territory was surrounded by an eerie forest, most of which looked dead to him. It almost looked like a place where those cryptids he read about would live.

Looking over at Patton, who was driving them to wherever this Pink Palace place was, he tried to see if he seemed a little disturbed by the surrounding area as well. However, it didn’t seem like he even noticed the forest as he was still smiling and happily going along with the commute, humming along to whatever he had played on the radio.

It didn’t take long before they reached their destination where Roman and Logan were already waiting for them outside. They had moved into the Pink Palace earlier so they could not only get out of Thomas’s cramped house quickly, but to also get everything situated for when Patton and Virgil joined them.

“Alright, kiddo! We’re here!” Patton clapped as he parked the car.

Virgil stared at the building for a few moments before responding. “…You know, when Thomas said it was called the “Pink Palace,” I thought that was just a name. I didn’t think the place would actually be pink…”

“PATTON! VIRGIL! So glad to see you both finally join us!” Roman yelled as he approached the car, which in turn caused Patton to practically jump out the vehicle to go hug him.

“It is indeed good to finally see you both again.” Logain said, walking up to the pair. “We have gotten the house completely situated in anticipation of your arrival. I have taken residence in the attic, Roman has claimed the basement, leaving you and Virgil to take the main house. It is already furnished; you both just have to put up whatever unnecessary decorations you want now.”

As they continued to talk, Virgil quietly got out of the car and opened the trunk so he could get his backpack and a box filled with some of his belongings. Since it seemed like the three were busy talking and catching up, he figured that he might as well be the one to unload the car and put everything inside before it got dark and nothing was done. He only took a few steps towards the house before Patton looked back at him and gasped.

“Virgil! Are you trying to unload the car alone?!”

He flinched. “Well, yeah. You guys seemed busy talking so I figured I should unload so you guys can keep talking.”

“Come now, Virgil; you know we can always continue talking while carrying whatever you both packed into the car!” Roman declared as he marched on over to the car and took out as much as he possibly could.

Logan was about to warn Roman about the danger of carrying so many things at once, but decided to not say anything just to see how this would end and just help unload.

When everything was unloaded, they all sat in the living room and the three continued their conversation from outside. Virgil didn’t talk much and just stared out the window, lost in thought. He didn’t even know what the others were talking about at this point; he mainly stayed so he didn’t feel lonely. Logan, who seemed to have noticed the emo’s quietness, decided to tell him about something that might interest him.

“Virgil.” His head perks up and he looks at him. “If you’re feeling bored or want to get away from the energy radiating off those two, there’s an old well that I think you might be interested in seeing.”

“An old well, huh?”

“Indeed. Just exit through the door in the kitchen and follow the path leading into the forest. Don’t worry, it’s extremely hard to get lost as you have a clear view of this house the whole way.”

He thought about it for a moment then decided that there was no harm in going, especially since he wasn’t really doing anything.

“Alright, I’ll go check it out. I’ll be back later.” Virgil said, grabbing his charging phone on the way out.

Following Logan’s instructions, he exited through the door in the kitchen and began to follow the path leading into the forest. On the way, he randomly picked up a branch to twirl in his hand. With how quiet it was, it eased his mind to be doing something with his hand. What didn’t ease his mind however was when some rocks slid down the hill next to him, indicating that he was being followed.

“The fu-” He picked up the rock and look at where it fell from. “Hello? Anyone there?”

Getting no response, he huffed and threw the rock up the hill, only to be met with a loud and pained growl.

“OH SHIT!” Immediately, he bolted off to get away from whatever made that noise as quickly as possible. He got a fair distance away before he heard something running through the bushes. Virgil got into a defensive position, holding the stick like a sword as he looked around. Before he could say anything a loud meow came from behind him, causing him to jump and look back. What he saw was just a skinny, dark gray cat.

“Oh… Okay… It’s just a cat.” He got closer to it. “You know you scared the shit out of me, right?” Sigh. Why Patton liked cats so much he’ll never know.

Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, Virgil once again looked around, but this time to get a better look at his surroundings. Like Logan said, he could see the house from where he was, but there was no sign of a well anywhere. Was Logan wrong about there being a well, or did he accidentally tell him the wrong path?

“I don’t see the thing… Maybe the cat knows where it is.” Virgil jokingly remarked.

“If you jump like how you did when it scared you, then you’ll know for sure.” A voice behind him said.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” Spinning around in a panic and holding the branch in a defensive position, Virgil’s expression was a mix of scared and angry as he saw that the person who spoke was Thomas. “Dude, warn a brother next time! I thought I was about to have a heart attack! How the hell did you even know I was here?”

Thomas couldn’t help but laugh at the poor man. “Sorry! Sorry! I couldn’t help it. And to answer your question, I heard you scream so I came to make sure you were okay. And you are! And you met my friend in the process!”

“Friend…?”

“Yeah! The cat!” Thomas walked over to the cat and began to pet it. “It came to my house one day so I decided to feed it and give it water and even a place to sleep!”

“I thought you were allergic to cats though, so wouldn’t this be bad for you?”

“Oh, I am allergic! This guy is hypoalogetic so I’m fine!”

“What? You mean hypoallergenic?”

“Yeah, that!” The cat proceeded to hop onto his shoulders and nuzzled against his face. “It’s great being able to love a cat without dying!”

“Riiiiight… Anyway, what are you even doing here? Also do you know where that well Logan was talking about?” Virgil asked, wanting to get his questions out of the way.

“Well I wanted to drop on by to make sure you guys were doing okay and if there was anything I could do to make the house more liveable. The place is old as heck, after all. Also, you’re on top of the thing.”

“Huh?” Virgil looked down and jumped back, looking at the ring of mushrooms he failed to notice and dirt that apparently covered the top of the well.

Knowing that he’d be confused, Thomas grabbed a branch and used it to tilt the cover of the hidden well so the dirt would slide right off it and render it visible.

“It’s super deep. Like, I dropped a pebble in it once and I think it took at least ten seconds before it hit the water. So whatever you do, be careful around it! I don’t want anything bad to happen to you!”

“Noted.” Virgil said, snapping and giving Thomas a finger gun while still staring at the ground.

“Oh, and you might wanna drop that stick you’re holding.”

He looked up at Thomas. “Why’s that?”

“Because…. That’s poison oak.”

“Wait what?!” Immediately dropping the stick, Virgil quickly started to wipe his hand on his jacket. “Man, and we don’t have anything to deal with this… You know, you really could have told me sooner, dude!”

“Sorry! I just got a good look at it right now!”

Virgil didn’t believe him but there was no point in arguing; he was gonna have to deal with a rash regardless since he was holding it for awhile. Sighing, he put his hands in his pockets and looked up. Dark clouds were forming, meaning it was going to rain soon.

“We should probably get going. It’s gonna rain at any moment now.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. I’ll walk with you back so you’re not alone. And don’t worry, I won’t let Patton see the cat.”

The men took a few steps before the clouds decided to let loose all the rain it was holding in, causing the cat to freak out and run away and for the men to book it to the Pink Palace before they could get sick from being in the rain for too long.

“Welp, so much for trying to beat the rain… I should probably head home myself before the rain gets worse. Oh! But before I forget!” Reaching into his jacket, Thomas pulled something covered in newspapers out and handed it to Virgil. “I found this under the bed in the guest room. Why it was there I have no idea, but I’m pretty sure it belongs to you. Now I’m gonna leave. Later, Virge!”

Virgil waved at Thomas and watched as he ran off to his car, then looked down at what he handed him. It wasn’t very heavy and was about the size of his forearm. Unwrapping it, he was shocked to see that it was a doll of him. The doll, while looking exactly like him, down to the patches on his jacket, also looked relatively old.

“A doll… of me? Why was a doll of me under the bed? Hell, why is there a doll of me at all?!”

Scratching his head, Virgil made his way inside the house and was going to tell the others that he had returned, only to realize once getting to the living room that Patton and Roman seemingly didn’t even notice that he was gone at all. He glanced over at Logan to see if he at least would notice that he was back, but his hands were covering his face in frustration so it was safe to assume that he was too annoyed to notice him either.

Sighing, Virgil decided to pass time by exploring the house with his new ‘mini him’. Not like there was really anything else to do since it was now raining outside and almost everything was still packed in boxes. He went from room to room, intrigued by some of the old decor that was still there and disgusted by the horrid state of the majority of the rooms. Honestly it seemed like the rash that formed on his hand thanks to the poison oak was in better shape than the rooms, and that was saying something. Going into his own room, he was taken aback at the sight of a heater in the fireplace and huge cracks in the ceiling.

“Better hope Logan doesn’t do anything to cause the ceiling to cave in, huh?” He asked his doll self, half joking.

Eventually he made his way back into the living room to see, and smell, that the others had moved into the kitchen to start making dinner. He couldn’t remember whose turn it was to cook, but judging the nasty smell that made its way into the living room, it was probably Roman trying to invent a new dish. Covering his nose with his shirt, he finally started to explore the room to get a better feel of it. Surprisingly it was in a better state than other rooms and had less boxes in it, but a picture of a baby crying over ice cream it dropped was hanging above the fireplace and that ruined the whole room for him.

Virgil walked over to one of the boxes that was sitting on the table and curiously opened it. Inside it were small trinkets that Patton usually had in his room, but apparently wanted to display in their new place. Placing the doll next to the box, he started to take the trinkets out to put on top of the fireplace. To him that was the perfect place to display them, but he wouldn’t say anything if Patton decided to move it. When he went to get the last item in the box, he found that it was a custom snow globe that Thomas had gotten Patton as a Christmas present. A picture of the five of them were in it along with a little town surrounding it. Patton treasured this snow globe with all his heart, so Virgil found it reasonable to place it on the center of the fireplace.

Taking a step back to admire the placement (and make sure it looked good), he nodded to himself and went back to the table to grab his doll, only to find that it somehow disappeared.

“Wha? That’s weird… I could have sworn I placed the thing next to the box…” He mumbled to himself, turning around to scan the room for it.

Since there wasn’t much in the living room, it didn’t take him long to find it… peeking out from behind a big box leaning against the wall? He stared at it questioningly for a moment before going over to it to pick it up. However, something else caught his eye as he went to pick it up. Moving the box out of the way, he saw a door that was seemingly hidden behind wallpaper.

“Hmmm… Hey, Pat?” Virgil called out, hoping that he would hear.

It took a minute, but Patton eventually poked his head into the room, “What’s up, kiddo?”

“Do you know where this tiny door leads?” He asked, pointing at the door. “Or if Logan or Roman know anything about it?”

“Can’t say I do… Hold on, I’m gonna go see if there’s a key for it.” Patton walked back into the kitchen and opened up a number of draws until he found one full of keys and looked through it. As he moved the keys around to look for one that might stick out, Logan tapped his shoulder.

“Patton? What are you looking for?” He asked.

“A key of sorts. Virgil found a really weird door in the wall so I figured that there would be a key for it. After all, all doors have keys, right?”

“A weird door in the wall? I think I know what you’re talking about, however I always assumed that, from how it was behind the wallpaper and practically undisturbed, it was just an odd decoration the original owners of the house decided to install for some odd reason.” Logan took a peek into the drawer and withdrew a key with a button on top. “Perhaps this might be the key to it, if the door is real at all? I don’t think it would belong to any other lock so this might be what you’re looking for.”

“Would you two please be quiet?! You’re distracting me from creating my masterpiece!” Roman exclaimed from behind them as he continued to work on cooking.

Logan gave him a disgusted look as he handed Patton the key. “As much as I’m curious to see if that key works and if the door is real, I feel as if I need to stay here to make sure el stupido doesn’t add something into that mess that’ll kill us all…”

“I’m right here so I can hear you, y’know!?”

Patton can’t help but giggle at the remark. Taking the key from Logan, he goes back over to Virgil and kneels down in front of the door. Using the key, he tore through the wallpaper, making an outline of the door, then used it to unlock it. To their surprise, they heard a click, meaning it actually did unlock. However when they opened the door, they were disappointed to see that behind the door was just a layer of bricks.

“Bricks? Well that’s boring.” Virgil pouted.

“Well… Maybe it was just sealed up when the house was divided. Sorry it wasn’t anything exciting, kiddo.” He pat his shoulder and right as he was about to get up, he noticed Virgil’s doll at the corner of his eye. “Awww~! That’s a cute doll of you! Kinda old looking, but still cute! Where’d you get it?”

“Thomas gave it to me. Said it was under a bed for some reason.” Virgil explained, placing his rashed hand into his pocket so Patton wouldn’t see that either.

“Thomas came by? Awww… He should have said hi to us at least!” The father figure pouted, “Oh well, guess we’ll have to say hi to him the next time he comes around.”

Patton got up and began to walk out of the room, before stopping in his tracks and turning towards the fireplace and seeing his trinkets organized on it.

“Oh! Kiddo? Did you place these for me?”

“Well, yeah. I was bored and thought I’d make myself somewhat useful before the day is over.”

“Virgil, you didn’t have to! You just worry about your own things, okay? I don’t want you to overwhelm yourself with my things too!” He walked over to the fireplace to get a better look at the decor. “…Although, I hope you don’t mind if I just…” And he promptly began to reorganize the arrangement, leaving only the snow globe in the place Virgil had left it.

“Yeah, I figured you’d do that…” Virgil muttered under his breath, closing the door and standing up and putting the doll in his pocket.

Not too long later, Roman called them both to the kitchen to eat dinner. As soon as Virgil entered the kitchen, he felt like was going to throw up due the smell that was emitting from whatever monstrosity it was that Princy made. Patton gagged as well, but tried to keep a straight face so he wouldn’t hurt his feelings. Without saying anything, Logan promptly opened a window, despite the rain, so the smell would hopefully lessen.

“…I’m getting the feeling you guys don’t like the dish I so happened to slave over for the past few hours, and you haven’t even tried it yet!” Roman crossed his arms and let out an insulted huff.

“N-No! That’s not it at all, Roman… It’s just… stuffy in here is all. We can’t wait to try what you cooked!” Patton attempted to cheer him up.

“I can surely wait…” Virgil muttered again.

“Virgil!”

“No, no, I expected much from Mr. Gloomy over there.”

“Can we please just eat already so I can go back into my room?!” Logan exclaimed, clearly irritated from the small argument.

“I think I’ll pass on dinner and go right to sleep. I don’t feel like getting poisoned by the Royal Slob on my first day here.” Virgil put his hood on and quickly walked away before Roman could respond.

When he got to his room, he placed the doll on a chair that was next to his bed and opened a box that was next to his window. It was filled with all sorts of trinkets that he had collected over the years. He would properly get to decorating his room later, but as of right now he just put up his band portraits, cat pillow, and a ‘family portrait’ and called it a night. Turning off the lights, he hopped into bed and pulled the covers over him then looked at his doll.

“Goodnight, lil me…” He yawned and closed his eyes, slowly falling into a deep slumber.

That is, until he heard squeaking a few hours later.


	2. The World Behind the Wall

Why was there squeaking? Thomas told them that he called an exterminator to ensure that there was no rodents in the place when they got there, and it was too high pitched to sound like it was the floor creaking. Virgil attempted to ignore the sound by covering his head with his blanket and tried to go back to sleep. That was until the squeaking sound got even louder, which resulted in him taking the blanket off and looking at the source of the noise.

It was… mice? It didn’t look like any kind of mice he’s seen before. The one next to his head was dark blue with spots on it, almost looking like stars that formed a constellation. One waiting next to his door was also dark blue, but had a spiral pattern on it as if it was supposed to look like a galaxy. He sat up to see if there was any more mice in the room, only for them all to run out his door.

Curiosity getting the better of him, he jumped out of bed with his jacket and bolted out the door to follow them. Oddly enough, they seemingly waited for him to get out of his room before going any farther. He followed them all the way into the living room where he watched as they went into the small door. Ignoring the fact that the door was cracked open when he swore that he closed it completely, he ran and slid on his knees, coming to a halt in front of the door and promptly opened it. He looked at the bottom of the door, expecting to see a mouse hole that he might have missed, but was instead met with a long tunnel that glowed with blue and purple hues and had another door at the end.

“Whoa…”

A light breeze from the tunnel brushed against him, almost as if beckoning him to enter. He stared in awe for a few more moments before crawling in, a smile on his face as he made his way to the other side.

His curiosity was instantly replaced with confusion once he went through the other small door. He was somehow back in the living room, but there was minor differences to it: the weird baby picture above the fireplace was changed so it was happily eating ice cream, and the decor on the fireplaces ledge was in the arrangement he placed them in.

He stared for a few more moments before his nose picked up a wonderful smell coming from the kitchen, causing him to make his way there. It almost smelled like Thanksgiving dinner to him.

Entering the kitchen, Virgil was shocked to see that Patton was both awake and cooking.

“Patton? What the heck are you doing awake at this time?!”

“You’re just in time for dinner, kiddo!” Patton said as he turned around.

Virgil was instantly taken aback when he saw his face. Patton had button eyes! How could he have buttons for eyes?!

“Okay, you are not Patton. Pat doesn’t have…” He points to his eyes. “Button… eyes…”

“Well I do, friendo! Do you like them?” The other man asked while chuckling. “Everyone here has them! You see, I’m your Other father~! Well, fatherly figure, anyway. Everyone has one!”

“Really?” Virgil tilted his head.

“Of course they do! Actually, I’m apart of your Other family! Speaking of which, can you please do me a favor and get Other Logan and Roman for me? They should be upstairs in the art studio!”

“Yeah, okay…” Virgil hesitated, but he started making his way to the stairs, not breaking eye contact with the Other Patton until he was out of view.

As Virgil walked up the stairs to look for the art room, he had a minute to think about this… weird ‘world.’ He didn’t know why, but something about it made him want to act upon his ‘Fight or Flight’ reflex. Maybe it was because it’s new, or different from what he was use to. Did everyone feel this way when first encountering their ‘Other Family’?

Well, that was a question for another time.

The moment he made it to the top of the stairs, he could hear muffled voices. It sounded like arguing. Considering who Logan and Roman were, it didn’t surprise him that they’d argue even here.

He made his way to the room and opened the door and peeked inside. The room was bigger than he expected it to be; almost as big as the living room. It was filled with a plethora of art supplies, paintings and sculptures (both finished and unfinished), and also what Virgil assumed to be a ‘painting rejet pile’ for paintings Roman didn’t like.

Logan and Roman were in the middle of the room in front of a painting. Roman had a paintbrush in his hand and Logan had a sketchbook in his. Were they trying to do a collab? From how they were arguing, it was hard to tell. Virgil entered the room completely and quietly closed the door behind him. The two men didn’t even notice him.

“For the last time, Roman, this art piece does NOT need a unicorn! It’s based off of medieval times! A unicorn is the last thing it needs!”

“But I’m telling you, Logan, that this alone is SOOOOO BORING! It needs some spice and something like a unicorn would do WONDERS!”

Just as Logan was about to continue yelling, Virgil finally spoke up.

“Uh… Hello?”

Both men looked at him immediately. They were surprised to see him there, yet happy at the same time.

And just like Patton said, they too had buttons for eyes.

“VIRGIL! I’m so happy to see you!” Roman exclaimed, rushing over to him and giving him a huge hug.

“As am I.” Logan smiled, walking towards them.

“Oh! And now that you’re here, you can help us solve this dispute we’ve been having for the past ever!”

“Ignoring the fact that the last part of your sentence made absolutely no sense, he is right. Come, have a look a the painting.”

Feeling that he had no other choice but to give an opinion, he let Roman drag him over to the painting so he could see it for himself. It was very medieval esque, something he could tell is what Logan was aiming for. Yet something about the color scheme Roman painted it in gave it a fantasy tone.

On the left side was an army filled with bright, almost pastel colors, riding horses towards the right side of the painting, which was painted with a much darker tone. The right side of the painting had a castle with many guards surrounding it, along with an army also rushing towards the left side. The middle of the painting had colors blending together as a sign of how both sides are going to clash. It gave it a very light vs dark; good vs evil tone to it. At least it did in Virgil’s mind.

He was about to ask what the problem is with it until he noticed something about the painting. On the front lines for the army on the left, the one leading the army was Virgil himself! And behind him was Roman, Logan, and Patton! Even Thomas was there too! Something he also noticed was that the leader for the other army was a strange looking figure whose face was seemingly half green, but he didn’t really pay too much attention to it.

“Whoa, hey, is that me?” Virgil asked, pointing to the leader of the army on the left.

“Yes it is! Something Logan and I agreed on when making this almost-masterpiece was that you would be the leader of the army!” Roman happily explained.

“Really? Why? I’d be a horrible leader and you both know it…”

“On the contrary, we both believe that you’d be an excellent leader. You have the qualities of a leader and if put in a situation where you had to be a leader, we’re confident that you’d make excellent choices. Of course as shown all throughout history, no leader is perfect; they all have their own flaws in one way or another. But I’m sure that you’d still be an excellent one nevertheless.”

Embarrassed by the compliment, Virgil shyly looked down and scratched the back of his head. “Oh uh… Thanks, I guess….”

“Anywho!” Roman turns to the painting. “We need your opinion about something; what amazing thing could we add to this? I mean it looks great, obviously, but what could we add to make it FANTASTICALLY AMAZING?! I said a unicorn but Logan says no.”

Logan pinched the bridge of his nose. “Because a unicorn doesn’t fit here! If you really want to add some sort of fantasy creature then at least make it an appropriate one!”

Roman huffed. “See?! This is what we can’t agree on! I think a unicorn is totally appropriate here but he still says otherwise! What do you think, Virge?”

It would be a lie if Virgil said this wasn’t amusing. Still, he had to settle this somehow, and he figured that if this Roman was anything like the one back home then he wouldn’t take a nothing for an answer.

“Hmmm… What about a dragon?” He suggested. “I don’t know exactly where, but a dragon could be cool.”

“A dragon… A DRAGON! VIRGIL, YOU’RE A GENIUS!” Roman practically screamed. He picked Virgil up and span him in excitement then quickly went to get his paints after putting him down.

“A dragon does seem like a creature that would fit properly in this particular scenario. Good idea, Virgil. Though I must ask: What kind of dragon? There are many, after all. Do you prefer the European type, such as the English Dragon or a Welsh Dragon? Or perhaps an Asian type, such as the Korean Dragon or the Japanese Dragon?”

Roman spoke up before Virgil had the chance to speak. “Oh what does it matter, nerd? I’ll just paint the most common dragon seen in movies and fairy tales!”

Logan huffed at the prince and Virgil couldn’t help but chuckle. He was going to stay and watch him paint, but then he remembered the reason he went looking for them in the first place.

“Oh yeah. By the way guys, Other Patton said that food is ready and he wanted me to come get you both.”

“Ah, Patton is done with dinner, is he? Well, we probably shouldn’t keep him waiting any longer than-”

“THE PAINTING CAN WAIT! ONE CANNOT BE CREATIVE ON AN EMPTY STOMACH!” Roared Roman as he threw his brushes down, startling Logan and Virgil. “LET US GO TO FEAST!” Marching past them, Roman grabbed Logan and Virgil’s arm and dragged them all the way downstairs.

Upon hearing the three enter the dining room, Patton turned to look at them. A smile instantly formed on his face.

“Well from all the yelling I heard up there, I assume you all had a yell of a time!”

“…I didn’t know you made jokes like that…” The three of them said at once.

“What joke did I make?” Patton asked innocently.

Logan cleared his throat. “Nevermind that. Lets just eat dinner, shall we?”

They all agree and promptly take their seats. Virgil is at the head of the table, Patton sits to the right of him and both Roman and Logan sit to his left.

“You kiddos must be hungry so I won’t make you wait to eat, so dig in!”

Roman immediately began grabbing food while Logan was a bit more choosey. Virgil on the other hand had yet to grab anything because he was looking at the whole table in awe.

The table was rather long and could probably fit at least 3 more people. From end to end the table was covered in different foods and sides to compliment it. Considering Virgil didn’t eat dinner before going to sleep, he was starving. He wanted to eat everything on the table, but decided against it.

What he did instead was focus on what was in front of him: Chicken, corn, mashed potatoes, biscuits, green beans, and a salad. What he put on his plate was a chicken leg, a big spoonful of mashed potatoes, and a biscuit. He planned to go for seconds later.

“You’re pretty hungry, aren’t you, kiddo?” Patton asked.

“Yeah! I didn’t eat dinner before going to sleep, so I’m starving.” Virgil said as he took a bite of the chicken. “…Oh man this is good. Hey, do you have anything to drink?”

“Of course! Any requests?” The Other father gestured to a chandelier that lowered, showing Virgil different drink options.

“Hmm… Grape smoothie?” Honestly he just asked for that randomly, wondering if it would be available.

The chandelier spun and lowered even more to allow the emo to access the drinks, stopping until it was at level with him and had the grape smoothie facing him. Impressed, Virgil grabbed his cup and filled it with the drink. He drank it all rather quickly and was going to take another bite of his food, but it was suddenly taken away.

Logan took his plate, Roman took the empty cup, and Patton placed a cake in front of him. The cake was a simple chocolate cake with purple icing on top. After a moment, lavender icing flower appeared and black and violet candles grew from the center of them. Then the words ‘Welcome Home’ appeared at the same time the candles lit themselves.

“…Home?” Virgil looked up at the other three.

“We’ve been waiting for you to come here, kiddo!” Patton smiled.

“And you sure took your time coming here! It was so BORING without you! But now, we can go on the most AMAZING adventures together~!” Roman boasted.

“Or if you’re not in the mood to deal with el stupido, we could discuss whatever you like.” Logan commented, causing Roman to glare at him.

“That sounds cool and all, but I didn’t even know I had an Other family…” Again, Virgil wondered if he should act upon his ‘fight or flight’ reflex.

“Of course you do! Like I said earlier, everyone has one!” Patton repeated. “Now how about we play a game of sort! I mean we’re all here so lets do it!”

“Like what, exactly…?” Logan hesitantly asked.

“Patton-cake, of course!” All three inhaled to object. “…But I guess we could do something else like play in mud and make mudpies or something.”

“Play in mud? Isn’t that a bit messy and annoying?” Virgil asked.

Roman chimed in rather quickly. “Actually, playing in the mud could be quite fun! With the right ideas, it could be as fun as playing in snow!”

“Also, being covered in mud has many health benefits. Things like mud baths have anti-inflammatory properties, they can smooth skin, as long as the mud isn’t too grainy, and they’re also good for-”

“Logan, buddy, it’s fine. I get it; there’s benefits from being in mud. If you don’t mind, I’d rather not be told everything it does…”

“…I actually think you should let Logan finish, kiddo.” Virgil looked at Patton, then looked back at Logan and gestured for him to finish.

He cleared his throat. “And mud is good for dealing with poison oak rashes.”

Virgil instantly stood up and took a step back. “H-How did you know about my-?!”

He looked down at his hand. The rash was still there and very visible. He didn’t notice it until now, but it hasn’t bugged him the entire time he was here so he kinda forgot about it. But that really made him wonder as to how they knew about it.

“Please, did you really think you could hide anything from brainiac here?” Roman asked. “He saw it when you were upstairs with us.”

Something about that explanation didn’t sit well with Virgil… But why?

“I uh… I appreciate it but I think I’ll be getting to bed now. I’m tired.” Tired and confused was more like it.

Patton softly smiled. “Of course! If you’re tired then we could play a game another time! Ro, Lo, come on. Lets show Virge his room!”

“Wait, hold on-” First they seemingly tried to convince him to play a game, now they’re ushering him to bed at the first mention of him being tired?

The urge to fight or flight was growing stronger by the second…

Arriving at Virgil’s room, they allow him to open the door while Logan turns on the light. It was nearly identical to his room in the ‘normal’ world, but everything that was still packed was unpacked and things were alive! Characters in his posters were moving and greeted him, figurines he collected jumped and said hello. It was all so surreal! He sat down on his bed and continued to look around in awe. How could any of this be real?!

He went to lay down, but stopped when he saw Patton sitting on a chair next to him and holding a jar of mud.

“Oh, the mud…” He mumbled, giving Patton his hand so he could spread mud over the rash.

After retracting his hand, Virgil yawned and laid down, pulling his up blanket to cover him.

“Goodnight, Virgil. See you soon.”


End file.
